Totally uncalled for

In mid-February vandals spraypainted an obscene reference to Boston Bruins hockey player Milan Lucic and the misspelled slogan “Go Canuks Go” on the wall of St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church in Burnaby, BC. Lucic’s family attend the church, and Lucic brought the Stanley Cup there in the summer after the Bruins defeated the Vancouver Canucks in the Cup final last spring. The church serves the Serbian community in British Columbia, estimated to number 15,000-20,000. The first Serbs immigrated to the province in the late 1800s, and the first church was built in the 1940s. The Serbian community was bolstered in the 1990s by new immigrants coming to Canada after the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. The current building was completed in 2005. Some schoolchildren showed up to try to wash off the graffiti, and a local company has offered to repaint the wall free of charge. On its website, the church thanked those in the community who participated in the cleaning efforts, donated funds and offered other support.